Peter King: Rand Paul's 'madness'

7/28/13 10:15 AM EDT

“When you have Rand Paul actually comparing Snowden to Martin Luther King or Henry David Thoreau, this is madness, this is the anti-war Democrats in the 1960s that destroyed their party for almost 15 years,” King said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I don't want that happening to our party."

King also blasted other Republicans for voting to defund the National Security Administration last week, calling the move “disgraceful.”

“I thought it was absolutely disgraceful that so many Republicans voted to defund the NSA program, which has done so much to protect our country,” King said.

King called the recent streak of anti-NSA moves an “isolation” in the GOP, long known for strong stances on national defense.

“This is an isolation streak that's in our party. It goes totally against the party of Eisenhower, Bush," King said. "I mean we are a party of national defense. We're a party who did so much to protect the country over the last 12 years."

The Paul camp shot back on Sunday evening, tweeting from Paul's campaign account "Peter King, from Dem wing of GOP, wants to send ur $ to places who burn our flag. I don't."

In a statement to POLITICO, senior advisor Doug Stafford said King would rather spend money patrolling Afghanistan than the border of the United States.

"Senator Paul offered an amendment to pay for emergency spending by cutting foreign aid. Peter king rejected this idea. If he had been on board with that we would have been able to redirect tens of billions of dollars home," Stafford said. "Senator Paul wants to come home from nation building sooner so we have more money for the actual defense of our country. Peter King wants to build bridges in Afghanistan instead of at home. He wants us endlessly patrolling the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan instead of ours at home."